In another development, a national strike coordinating committee was set up at the National Union of Mineworkers headquarters in Sheffield, under the control of union president Arthur Scargill. Union officials said the center will draw up plans to persuade miners still working in parts of central England to join the strike.

With most of Britain on Easter vacation, it will be Wednesday or Thursday before the union knows how the 20 percent of its 183,000 underground members still at work have responded to last week's call for a national strike.